Rachel Getting Married
By Marshall Fine
Rating:
Who's in it: Anne Hathaway, Rosemarie DeWitt, Debra Winger
What's it about: A young woman (Hathaway) is released from rehab to attend her sister's wedding in Connecticut.
Bridal blues: As Kym, sister of the bride, Anne Hathaway gets her first real shot at playing a jangly, troubled character - and finds way more humor than you'd expect. In this Jonathan Demme film, she's all exposed nerves and untrustworthy impulses, trying to stay straight when she knows everyone expects her to mess up. The film takes place over the course of one long weekend, when all sorts of family history bubbles up, much of it triggered by memories of Kym's sorry history as an addict. Demme perfectly captures the push-pull of past and present, and the love/hate between sisters, who have spent their lives alternately adoring, resenting and disappointing each other. DeWitt ("Mad Men") finds all those angles to the title character, while Bill Irwin is painfully cautious as their dad - and Debra Winger brings a sharp edge as the sisters' divorced mother.
Long story short: It's a great movie about a wedding you wouldn't want to attend.
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